A splendor salon may look like an unusual location for community outreach, but now not to Katie Steller. The Minneapolis salon owner has taken it upon herself to make sure regular acts of kindness don’t go disregarded. Last fall, she released the Steller Kindness Project to share the testimonies of nearby those who lend a hand to others.
“It is so easy to be eaten up and defeated through the pain and disappointment of our international,” Steller wrote in one in every one of her posts. “Changing the arena desires to appear on a micro level if we ever need macro consequences.” Using her Instagram account as a launching point, Steller requested her fans to nominate people whose small and quiet acts of kindness have helped others in a big way.
The nominations got here pouring in: a high school library worker who goes the extra mile for college kids in need; a woman who indicates up for her neighbor, a single mother with four youngsters, and feeds the community’s stray cats; a compassionate boy with Down syndrome who likes to braid hair. Though the Steller Kindness Project is still in its infancy, its seed has become planted long ago.
Steller become eleven years vintage while her autoimmune disorder ulcerative colitis turned into diagnosed. By 18, her illness had stepped forward beyond remission, and he or she had her big intestine removed. Then, she commenced to lose her hair.
I by no means cared approximately hair earlier than,” Steller stated. “I didn’t realize how vital it becomes until I started to lose it.” That’s when Steller’s mother took her for her first professional haircut. Steller recollects how she felt so venerated, so cared for, by means of the stylist. It was a second that changed her existence, in my opinion, and professionally. She has been on a mission to pay that act of kindness forward ever due to the fact that.
After attending cosmetology faculty, she opened Steller Hair Co. In northeast Minneapolis in 2013. In April, Steller, 27, changed into named the Small Business Association’s 2018 Minnesota Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
But that’s not what matters maximum to her.
Last fall, after mass shootings, flooding, and hurricanes ravaged elements of America, Steller determined to do something advantageous to attempt to reduce the fear and ache. I become feeling hopeless,” she stated. “But I additionally knew that there had been such a lot of humans doing type things. However, it wasn’t being talked about because’s not why they do it.” That’s when Steller launched her undertaking, which is designed to honor each nominee uniquely. Steller plans to amplify her commercial enterprise and preserve the Steller Kindness Project.
